Saturday, September 30, 2006

India BPOs under scanner after TV channel exposes data leak

India's Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) industry received a serious jolt when a TV channel promised to telecast the issue of growing concern over vulnerability of data security in BPOs and call-centers in India.

The London daily, the Sunday Times, quoting an "investigative" report by Channel 4, said that the credit card data, along with passport and driving license numbers, are stolen from call centers in India and sold to the highest bidder.

"Middlemen are offering bulk packages of tens of thousands of credit card numbers for sale. They even have access to taped telephone conversations in which British customers disclose sensitive security information to call center staff," The Sunday Times reported in a shocking expose.

According to industry sources, many BPOs, including Tata Consultancy Services, Wipro, Zenta and Office Tiger, carry out cash recovery for American Express, Chase Bank and Capital One Bank. They collect credit card and bill payments from US citizens.

Channel 4 is understood to have spent over a year trying to locate security lapses in India's call centers.

The program titled 'The Data Theft Scandal' is a part of Channel 4's investigative series 'Dispatches' that will be telecast in the UK on October 5.

Last June, the HSBC employee in Bangalore was arrested after £ 230,000 was stolen from British customers' accounts.

However, this time, unlike the HSBC-like cases where BPO employees were in the firing line, the charges are against middlemen.

Presently, the only available information is that Channel 4 has on record a middleman named Sushant Chandak offering to sell a database with the credit card details of 2,00,000 people as commercial "leads." At a meeting in Calcutta, he seems to have boasted of a network of agents in call centers across India.

In a separate meeting, Chandak offered the details of 8,000 British mobile phone users. He even apparently had tapes of customers being called at home from a call center.

A second New Delhi-based middleman known as Ghufran is offering details of customers with Halifax, Nationwide, Woolwich, Bank of Scotland and NatWest for £ 5 each. The details are believed to have been obtained from purchases using cards, the report claims.

Ghufran claimed the information was obtained by technical support staff which visited call centers and used memory sticks to download recent sale transactions.

Interestingly, according to the newspaper, Chandak and Ghufran have denied selling information unlawfully. Chandak reportedly said the information he provided was not genuine while Ghufran said he was passed the data.

Friday, September 29, 2006

Just say no to child labour, India to tell people

"Officially, India has about 12 million child workers under 14, more than any other nation, but some voluntary groups put the number at close to 60 million." Without question, this could be a huge social issue. So many kids enter sweatshops instead of schools. This could beyound my imagination.

The worst thing is that this is a long time known issue. "Under India's Child Labour (Prohibition and Regulation) Act of 1986, children under 14 are already banned from working". A good law is poorly implemented in 20 years. What can I say? A non-functioning government and social system. Am I right?

More than 50 % in India unemployed during 2004-05

When India government is boasting about the young age and plentiful of workfore, this report reveals the population is actually a big problem for India. Population without educations and jobs can not push its economy ahead. It is a large social and economicla burden.

New Delhi, Sept 29: More than half of the country`s population was reeling under unemployment during 2004-05 with urban India representing the most number of people without proper work.

According to the data released by the government on Friday, about 42 per cent of the population in the country were usually employed during the year 2004-05.

With the unemployment rate among the educated higher than that among those whose education level was lower than secondary, India was left with almost 58 per cent of its population without employment.

Rural areas accounted for 44 per cent of the employed while urban India had 37 per cent of its population employed.

In urban India, the `trade, hotel and restaurant` sector engaged about 28 per cent of the male workers while, `manufacturing` and `services` sectors accounted for nearly 24 and 21 per cent respectively of the usually employed males.

On the other hand, for urban females, the `services` sector accounted for the highest proportion (36 per cent) of the total usually employed, followed by `manufacturing` (28 per cent) and `agriculture` (18 per cent).

The employment rate (number of person unemployed per 1000 person in the labour force) according to usual status was 17 in the rural areas and 45 in the urban locations.

The unemployment rate for women are found to be higher than that for men, and the highest among urban women.

About 4 per cent of the rural households and 8 per cent of the urban households had no usually employed member.

During the period 1999-2000 to 2004-05, the unemployment rate in terms of the usual status remained almost the same for rural men and decreased by 1 percentage point for urban men, but increased by about 1 percentage point for women in both rural and urban areas.

In as many as 26 per cent of the households in the rural areas and 8 per cent in the urban areas, there was not a single member in the age group of 15 years and above, who could read and write a simple message with understanding.

In the rural areas during 2004-05, about 64 per cent men and 45 per cent of the women were literate. The corresponding proportions, in the urban areas, there were 81 per cent and 69 per cent.

Water crisis grows worse as India gets richer

This article by Somini Sengupta The New York Times reveals the environment, resources, and infrastructure problems in India.

NEW DELHI The quest for water can drive a woman mad. Ask Ritu Prasher. Every day, Prasher, a homemaker in a middle-class neighborhood of the capital, rises at 6:30 a.m. and begins fretting about water.

It is a rare morning when water trickles through the pipes. More often, not a drop will come.

In the richest city in India, with the nation's economy marching ahead at an enviable clip, middle-class people like Prasher are reduced to foraging for water. Their predicament testifies to the government's astonishing inability to deliver the most basic services to its citizens at a time when India asserts itself as a global power.

The combination has left water all too scarce in some places, contaminated in others and in cursed surfeit for millions who are flooded each year. Today the problems threaten to stand in the way of India's ability to fortify its sagging farms, sustain its economic growth and make its cities healthy and habitable. At stake are not only its economic ambitions, but also its very image as the world's largest democracy.

Delhi's water woes are typical of many of India's cities. Nationwide, the urban water distribution network is in such disrepair that no city can provide water from the public tap for more than a few hours each day.

An even bigger problem than demand is disposal. In Delhi's case, the city can neither quench its thirst nor adequately get rid of the ever-bigger heaps of sewage that it produces. About 45 percent of the population is not hooked up to the public sewage system at all.

Those issues are amplified across the country. More than 700 million Indians, or about two-thirds of the population, do not have adequate sanitation. Largely for lack of clean water, 2.1 million children under the age of 5 die each year, the United Nations has reported.

The government says that 9 out of 10 Indians have access to public water supply, but that may include sources that are going dry or have been contaminated.

The World Bank, in rare agreement with Narain, who has been a staunch opponent, warned in a report published last October that India stood on the edge of "an era of severe water scarcity."

the World Bank report concluded, "India will have neither the cash to maintain and build new infrastructure, nor the water required for the economy and for people."

The fabled Yamuna River, on whose banks this city was born more than 2,000 years ago, is a case study in the acute water management crisis confronting this country.

In Hindu mythology, the Yamuna is considered to be a river that fell from heaven to earth. Today, it is a foul portrait of crippled infrastructure - and yet, still worshiped. From the bridges that soar across the river, the faithful toss coins and sweets, lovingly wrapped in plastic. They scatter the ashes of their dead. In Delhi, the Yamuna itself is clinically dead.

As it leaves the city, the river becomes the principal drain for Delhi's waste, as residents pour about 950 million gallons of sewage into it each day. Coursing through the capital, the river becomes a noxious black thread. Clumps of raw sewage float on top. Methane gas gurgles on the surface.

It is hardly safe for fish, let alone bathing or drinking. A government audit found last year that the level of fecal coliform in the Yamuna, which is one measure of filth, was 100,000 times the safe limit for bathing.

Prasher has the misfortune of living in a neighborhood on Delhi's poorly served southern fringe. As the city's water supply runs through an 8,960-kilometer network of battered public pipes, an estimated 25 to 40 percent leaks out. By the time it reaches Prasher, there is hardly enough. On average, she gets no more than 13 gallons a month from the tap and a water bill that fluctuates from $6 to $20, at its whimsy, she complains, since there is never a meter reading anyway.

That means she has to look for other sources, scrimp and scavenge to meet her family's water needs. She buys 265 gallons from private tankers, for about $20 a month. On top of that she pays $2.50 toward the worker who pipes water from a private tube-well she and other residents of her apartment block have installed in the courtyard.

Nearly a fourth of Delhi households, according to the government-commissioned Delhi Human Development Report, rely at least in some part on such wells. It is one of the principal reasons why groundwater in Delhi is drying up faster than virtually anywhere in the country: 78 percent of it is considered overexploited.

Warning of "an unparalleled water crisis," the study released in August found that a quarter of Delhi households had no access to piped water, and that 27 percent got water for less than three hours a day. Nearly two million households, the report found, had no toilet.

The slums built higgledy-piggledy behind Prasher's neighborhood have no public pipes at all. The Jal board sends tankers instead. The women here waste their days waiting for water, and its arrival sets off desperate wrestling in the streets.

Monday, September 18, 2006

Farmers protest against India RIL SEZ

The SEZ saga has a new twist everyday. Today, farmers from three districts in Maharashtra have rejected a proposal to give away their land for Reliance Industries' proposed Special Economic Zone, reports CNBC-TV18.

In Pen, Maharashtra, 140 kilometres from Mumbai, an open house between the Maharashtra government and 200 farmers has taken an unexpected turn. Farmers from 15 villages in Raigad are protesting against giving up their land for Reliance's 75,000 acre Maha SEZ project.

Another farmer says, "This is our birth place, our livelihood has come from this land, we will not sell it, even if we get lots of money for it."

Farmers claim that in May, Reliance had offered them Rs 4 lakh an acre, industrial training, living expenses for three years and 12.5% of their land back after development. But they are not satisfied.

A farmer says, "People here are against selling their land inspite of Reliance saying that they will give back 12.5% of the land and will give us jobs."

The farmers claim that the Maharashtra Government has now stepped in to buy the land on behalf of Reliance. Although the government has not made a monetary offer yet, farmers fear the state will invoke Section Six of the Land Acquisition Act. This gives it power to acquire the land by merely notifying farmers.

Today was the first day the Maharashtra government called for views of farmers whose land was to be acquired for the SEZ, but the answer was an overwhelming no! It is now to be seen whether the SEZ will progress as planned as farmers refuse to accept any package or compensation.

An inverse snobbery is afoot. We are lectured every other day: “What is needed is universal, free, primary education.” From this comes the unstated inference: “Institutes of higher learning - the IITs, IIMs - are institutions of, and for the elite. They must be bent to serve the poor, suffering, excluded backwards.”

No one can deny that we must spread primary education at the fastest pace possible. That China has achieved near universal literacy and just about 60 per cent of us are literate - and that too only on our definition of “literacy”, that is that a person is able to sign his name - must account for some of the difference between China and India today. Nor does one need much argumentation to see that we must wholly reorient our school education: it consists almost entirely of imparting information, and then trapping the student in the exams into revealing what he does not know; when she can get the information at the click of a mouse, of what significance is it that she has or hasn’t memorised the date of the Battle of Plassey? Contrast what our NCERT textbooks’ controversies, with the report in the International Herald Tribune the other day [1 September, 2006] about the textbook that has been put out in China’s Shanghai region: Bill Gates and JP Morgan get prominence while Mao is mentioned in just one sentence - it explains that when flags are flown at half-mast when a person like Mao dies. That’s it.

Nor can anyone dispute that one of the things we must expand is vocational education. Seventy per cent of those who graduate have degrees in Arts. One, they don’t want to do the sorts of jobs that are available. Two, employers have little use for them. Third, you can’t find a plumber¿ Krishan Khanna, an alumni of IIT, Kharagpur, an evangelist for vocational education, points to the telling contrast: India has about 5,000 ITIs (under the Ministry of Labour) and about 7,000 vocational schools (under the Ministry of HRD; and never the twain shall meet!); China has about 500,000 secondary vocational schools.

There can be no dispute about the need for expanding primary and vocational education, nor for the need to reorient them totally. It is the inference that is drawn, “IITs and IIMs are for the elite, higher education is for the elite,” which is errant nonsense. Higher learning, and the Research and Development work that can follow only from such higher learning are just as necessary. Not “Either/or”, as Vinoba would say, but “And also”.

The growing gap

We often pride and comfort ourselves with the observation, “We have one of the largest pools in the world of scientific and technical manpower.” But clearly, the numbers, large in absolute terms, are not large enough: look at the way salaries, even starting salaries have shot up in the last five years in IT, ITES and similar professions: they speak to a grave shortage.

Even if the absolute figures of engineers and scientists are taken at face value, numbers by themselves don’t go far. While celebrating the impressive jump in enrollment in higher education - the 1991 Census had counted 20 million with graduate and higher degrees, and 53 million by 2003; while pointing out that enrollment in science and engineering courses had risen faster than overall enrollment: 2.7 times in science and 10 times in engineering; the NCAER’s India Science Report, sets out some telling figures that give pause. Almost 30 per cent of those who have finished 12th class or higher in science are not working in jobs requiring scientific learning: they are either unemployed or are housewives. The figure is 20 per cent in the case of science graduates, and 14 per cent for those with Ph. Ds in science. Of science graduates, only a third are employed in “professional and technical” assignments. And on the other side, many employed in science-centered jobs turn out not to be sufficiently qualified. Of post-graduates who are unemployed, two-thirds have studied science. Of Diploma Holders who are unemployed, 53 per cent belong to the science stream.

But sub-optimal utilisation is just one aspect. A presentation of Dr. R.A. Mashelkar points me to two studies and the indices of output they sketch - Science and Engineering Indicators, 2006, Volumes I and II, National Science Board, Arlington, VA; and R.N. Kostoff, D. Johnson, C.A. Bowles and S. Dodbele, Assessment of India’s Research Literature, Office of Naval Research and Northrop Grumman, Arlington, VA. These show an alarming slippage - of effort, of attainments, of standards. Consider one index: the number of papers that are being published by China and India in high-calibre journals - ones that are accessed by Science Citation Index and Social Science Citation Index. The Kostoff study indicates that in 1980, papers from China were one-fifteenth of the papers produced from India. In 1995, they became about equal. By 2005, papers originating from China had become almost thrice those from India. Between these dates, papers from India increased by 2.5, China’s ten times. Kostoff and his associates point out that the scientific output of South Korea already exceeds that of India, and that of Taiwan and Brazil is catching up fast.

As part of the dramatic growth in Chinese research output may be caused by the multiplication of journals, Kostoff and his colleagues turned to three high Impact Factor journals - the Journal of the American Chemical Society, the Physical Review Letters, and the Journal of Biological Chemistry. “India had noticeably more publications in the three journals prior to about 2000,” they note. In 2005, their figures show, Chinese researchers published more than five times the number of papers than Indian researchers in the Journal of the American Chemical Society. Mashelkar points to his own field, Chemistry: every eighth paper published in Chemical Abstracts is now from China; every fortieth Indian.

Nor is this accidental. The US National Science Board’s Science and Engineering Indicators shows the focused effort behind China’s leap. In 1991, China was spending around $ 12 billion on R&D, $ 85 by 2003. Our total R&D expenditure is around $ five billion. Over this period, China’s academic R&D expenditure increased ten-fold. “China’s R&D expenditures are rapidly approaching those of Japan, the second largest R&D performing nation,” the study notes. “OECD data show China’s investment at 17% of Japan’s in 1991 but at 74% of Japan’s in 2003.” The National Science Board’s analysts observe, “such a rapid advance on the leading R&D performing countries and regions would still be unprecedented in recent history.” This emphasis on R&D is bearing results. Focusing on five high-technology industries, Science and Engineering Indicators shows that “In 2003 China had surpassed Japan as a producer of high-technology goods¿ China’s rise from a mere $ 23 billion in 1990 to $ 224 billion in 2003, remarkable both for its speed and consistency, moved its share of world high-technology exports to 12%, beyond Japan’s share,” which by then had been pushed down to 9%. Not just papers by Chinese researchers are now such an important proportion of high-impact publications, their work is being translated into products. And many of these high-technology industries add sinews to military prowess.

This effort of China has only accelerated with each passing year. While we are on a course to undermine the few islands of excellence that have survived, the IITs and IIMs, China has set itself a target at the opposite end: one hundred world-class universities. Mashelkar points out how it has already begun pursuing this target. It is giving each of its ten leading universities $ 125 million - around Rs. 550 crore each. The two foremost universities - Beijing and Tsinghua - are being given $ 225 million each - around Rs. 1,200 crore each! In the second phase, China has decided to allocate similar grants to thirty more universities.

I leave the task of collecting comparable figures about our universities as an exercise for you, dear reader!

• There are 10.5 million students enrolled in all higher-education institutions. This is way below what’s needed — total enrollment forms only about 11 per cent of the relevant age-group (17-23) population. Even South-east Asian countries show much higher enrollment: Philippines (31%), Thailand (19%), Malaysia (27%) and China (13%).

• On public expenditure on higher education, India lags way behind at $406 per student, just a fraction of countries like China (US $2,728), Brazil (US $3,986) and Malaysia (US $11,790).

Tuesday, September 05, 2006

China's Advantages Over India

Recently some western and Indian medias are boasting about Indian's deveolopement by comparing with China simply for political reasons. Can that be true? Let me tell you some advantages China enjoys:

The biggest advantage China has is the basic education. more than 98% of Chinese are literate. That's one of the best performance among the developing countries. Labor force with education and skills is what really lures foreign companies to China and push Chinese economy ahead.

The second adavantage China has is the compelete industrial system. China's industrial revenue passed the agri-revenue in early 1970s. Industrial GDP in China is about $1 trillion, and it is still growing fast (annual growth rate has been more than 16% in recent years). US's industrial revenue is about 25% of its GDP, that translates its industrial GDP is about $3 trillion. By this comparing, you will realize the size of Chinese industry. India's industrial GDP is less than $200 billion. China can provide almost all parts and components for any products today except few top end ones. No other developing countries can match this.

The third advantage Chinese have is the vision into future. China invested a lot into technology R&D. Before the reform, 2.7% of GDP in R&D was poured into R&D even we were so poor (People's living was poor but the country was growing fast), that's why we had done so many things in that short time. China had almost no industry left in 1949 after the long time wars, but China could make large jets, nulclear submarines in late 1970s. That was a huge leap in a short time and had huge impact in China today's economy. China now is allocating more more resources in R&D. China today is among the leading countries in telecommunication tech, enginering, biotech, nanotech, superconductor tech.... Few other developing countries can match China in R&D.

The fourth advantage China has is the stability. China has many problems as a huge developing countries without any doubt. But China has been stable in past amost 60 years and will only be better with the economical progress and openness of Chinese society. At least there is no guerilla wars or Naxalites's wars inside China; Chinese have enough food and enough nutrition; people don't need to live in simple slums that are simply made of sticks and plastics.

The fifth advantage China has is a nation being united. Minorities are take care of and assited by government and people of other ethnical groups. We don't have any large scale conflicts between different athnic groups that can kill thousand people in a short period and we don't worry about the violent bombing that can kill hundreds in one day.

The sixth advantage China has is the good relationships with countries all around around the world, let alone our neighbours. We are not a main target of so-called terrorists.

The seventh advatage China has is the health care of her residents. Even we are criticizing our health system, Chinese average lifespan is higher than many other developing countries. Even we are criticizing our goverment the AIDS issue and western medias exaggerate the problem, we have only 0.64 million people infected even we have the largest population, much less than the No. 1 AIDS nation in the world. Chinese never complain about the shortages of medcines or vaccines for known diseases since we can make or the government has the resources to buy from others countries.

The eighth advantage China has is the good infrastructure for agriculture. China's irriagtion system we built before the reform covers more than 75% of our arable land. We don's count on the monsoon for our food and economy any more. Weather can cause damage or benefit to our economy, but its impact on our economy is so small.

The nineth advantage China has is the huge market. The largest commodity buyer in the world, The largest IC market in the world, The largest telecommunication market in the world, the second largest PC market in the world, the second largest auto market in the world. Need I list more?

The tenth advantage China has is that China's economy is balanced. We have balanced agriculture, industry and service sectors.

The eleventh advantages China has is the nice infrastructure. We are building expressway like crazy and we began to build our huge nationwide express railroad system. Urban residents get waters from their private taps. We don't depend on public taps or trucks for water supply. China has the second largest electricity generation capacity (more than 5 trilion KW at the end of 2005) in the world, but we are still adding 0.7 trillion KW capacity each year in recent years. The infrastructure achievement bolsters our economy and improves our living standards.

The twelfth advantage China has is that the strong self-dependence sentiment. We welcome investment and market in the outside, but we always count on ourselves.

The thirteenth advantage China has is that China is intergrated with outside. We bought more than US$600 billion products from other economies and we sold even more to others in 2005. We are confident in our industrial competitiveness and we don't need high custom tariff to protect our companies. 109 million tourists visited mainland China from outside in 2004 and more than 33 million mainland Chinese traveled to other places in 2005.

The fourteenth advantage China has is the low cost, but good quality products that are competitive in the international market. Low cost does not mean low wages only. Low cost means skilled labors who have education. Low cost means material convenience, China is the largest iron & steel producer, the largest cement producer and China is one of the largest oil and gas producer. Low cost means availability of industrial parts and components, you can find bolts and you can also find IC chips in China. Low cost means the nice infrastructure that can move resources, parts and components, and your final products around the world efficiently.

The fiftheenth advantage China has is that we speak our own Chinese. With the economy development, more and more internationals are studying Chinese. That's a big business opportunity for us. Around 150,000 international friends are studying in China already. A lot of Chinese schools exist in other countries. Chinese language is getting hotter and hotter. Also, Chinese can make software in English, Japanese, Korea (of cource Chinese too), but few others know how to make Chinese software.

The sixteenth advantage is China's openness. We not only open our market, but we open to the people from other countries. 300,000 S Koreans are living in China even they are richer than us. Hundreds of thousands internationals are working in China.

The seventeenth advantage China has is our people are disciplined. We Chinese always walk the talk. We know boasting can do nothing good to ourselves.

The eighteenth advantage China has is our economy is always growing fast. Chinese economy grew at more than 7% annually in average before the reform even China was under embargo and had to put a lot of resources in building our national security. China's economy has been growing at more than 9% in average since the reform.

The nineteenth advantage China has is we have plenty of labor force. Chinese lifespan is almost 10 years longer than India. Chinese can work longer. Chinese women were liberated and most of them entered job market. 98% of literate rate in China is much higher than around 60% in India. That's why China's labour force is always much larger than India. China has 1.3 billion population, India has 1.1 billion. But China has 791.4 million labor force while India only has 496.4 million according to CIA's factbook. No matter how many people you have, if your country cannot provide enough food, enough nutrition, enough education, and more important, enough jobs. The more population can only means more burden for a society.

The twentyth advantage China has is that all of our Chinese are equal. There are no untouchables in China and we don't have caste system existing. The only difference amony Chinese are wealth, jobs and education. But people can make difference if you work hard and learn hard or do your business wisely.

Need I list more advantages about China?

China today is tired of talking about the ownerships of cell phones, TVs, air conditioners or other home appliances even we are still a very huge market and manufacturer. We are talking about buying computers (more than 20 million PCs were sold in China last year, the second only after US) and cars (China's auto market is only after US in numbers in the world), digital cameras and other tech fashions.

China today is tired of talking about expressways even we are still building a lot, we are talking about and building express railways.

China today is tired of talking about the numbers of FDI, we are talking about how to use and manage the huge money we saved in the past. China's forex reserve will pass $1 trillion this year. $1 trillion is not small money, right?

China is tired of talking about the number of dial-up internet users, we are talking about broadband. China will be the largest broadband market in the next year in a recent survey by an international consultant company(we don't talk too much about uncertain long long future).

China is tired of talking about economical growth rate even our economy is running ahead at more than 10%, we are talking more about the quality.

China is tired of talking about food and other basic necessaries for living, we are talking about tourism (33 million visited outside of mainland China last year), fashions, decoration of living spaces.

When western medias and companies talk loudly about problems of China's banks, international investors flooded into stock market to buy the shares of China's banks when they were IPOed in Hongkong market. They value Chinese banks. Those Chinese banks are huge too.